India launches strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan

NEW DELHI India has conducted "surgical strikes" on suspected militants in Pakistan it suspects of preparing to infiltrate into the part of Kashmir it controls, the army's director general of military operations said on Thursday.

Lt General Ranbir Singh told reporters the strikes were launched on Wednesday based on "very specific and credible information that some terrorist units had positioned themselves to infiltrate".

Singh said the strikes had caused significant casualties, and that he had he had called his Pakistani counterpart to inform him of the operation.

An army source said that the strikes were launched across the Line of Control, or de facto border between the two countries.

NEW DELHI India's debt-laden steel industry should not take the government's protectionist measures for granted and need to raise their efficiency to compete with foreign companies, the country's steel minister told Reuters in an interview on Friday.